“Time is like a river. You cannot touch the same water twice, because the flow that has passed will never pass again. Enjoy every moment of your life.”
– Author unknown
As mentioned in our last post, the 3 most common ways to visit Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore are by land, by kayak, and by boat. We were able to explore the park extensively using all three methods. In this blog post we'll share the ways we explored the park by kayak, and on our last night in the area, by boat.
Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore - By Kayak
We had rescheduled our sea kayak tour of the Pictured Rocks from earlier in the week to an afternoon tour on Thursday, July 18. But we received another text from Pictured Rocks Kayaking, our tour operator, telling us the water on Lake Superior was too choppy and the tour would again be cancelled. Once again we had the choice of kayaking around Grand Island in the relatively protected waters there as an alternative. Fortunately we had planned for this possibility by reserving tickets for a sunset cruise on a tour boat for the next night. We were going to see the Painted Rocks by water, one way or the other.
We left for the kayak launch expecting to paddle around Grand Island. However, on our way to the launch site, we received exellent news - the waters along the Pictured Rocks had calmed completely! The kayak tour would be held, but would leave later than originally scheduled, which meant we would be there late in the day when the cliffs would be lit up by the sinking sun. Perfect for photography! Of course, we were thrilled.
We would be spending 5 hours visiting various sites along the cliffs of Pictured Rocks, leaving at 3:30 and returning at approximately 8:30. Not all of that time was spent kayaking. We were transported by boat out to the lakeshore, then launched our boats directly on the water. I think we spent around 3 hours in the kayaks, but the time went too fast!
We had our first view of the Grand Island East Channel Lighthouse as we left the harbor. The wooden one-and-a-half story keepers house with a square tower attached to the gable end was established in 1868. It was intended to lead boats from Lake Superior through the channel on the east side of Grand Island into the harbor at Munising. Although privately owned and inaccessible to the public, it can be easily viewed from one of the many tour boats heading out to Pictured Rocks.
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| Grand Island East Channel Lighthouse |
Our captain decided to take us all the way out to Chapel Rock and have us paddle our way back along the shoreline from there. We got into our tandem kayaks right from the unboard dock and made our way over toward Chapel Rock.
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| Chapel Rock |
Next we paddled along the cliffs until we reached a narrow canyon and we paddled into it with the steep walls of the cliffs rising above us.
Our tour guide was excellent and shared a lot of the local history as well as telling us how the Pictured Rocks were formed. It was amazing seeing from the water the same sites we had hiked on the cliff-tops high above earlier in the week. It gave us a whole different perspective of just how huge and colorful the cliffs are and being able to see so far down into the clear water.
Highlights for us were being able to kayak into some sea caves, getting close up to the arch at the Grand Portal and paddling through the arch at Lovers Leap.
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| Approaching a sea cave |
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| Grand Portal |
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| Looking back at Lovers Leap |
The tour was absolutely everything we had hoped for, and more. It was well worth the money spent. To see more of our kayak trip, click
here for our YouTube video which shares a lot more of what we saw during our tour.
After returning to shore way past our dinner time, we stopped at a food truck in Munising for a delicious meal of whitefish and fries. We can highly recommend
Cap'n Ron's if you're in the area!
Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore - By Tour Boat
July 19th was our last night and last opportunity to enjoy the breathtaking beauty of Pictured Rocks. We had previously reserved tickets for a sunset cruise with Pictured Rocks Cruises and were excited to be able to get one last chance to photograph and video the sites along the shore from yet another angle.
As an added bonus, we would be seeing Spray Falls. Spray Falls is accessible by land when taking a spur from the Chapel Loop trail we had hiked on earlier, but it would have added around 3.5 or more miles to our 11 mile hike, so we decided that would be pushing it a little too far for us. The sunset cruise gave us the opportunity to see the falls from the best vantage point - the water!
We arrived at the dock in downtown Munising extra early, hoping to be close to the head of the line so we could get seats on the top level of the boat. Apparently there were a lot of other passengers with the same idea because the line was already long. But we were pleased to hear two boats would be leaving at the same time, vastly improving our chance of getting good seats. Not long after boarding and settling into our seats in the back row of the top deck we were on our way.
We cruised quite close to the shore of Grand Island and we were able to get better photos of the East Channel Lighthouse than we had the evening before.
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| Grand Island East Channel Lighthouse |
From there we continued east along the shore until we arrived at
Lovers Leap and Rainbow Cave, with the late afternoon sun lighting it up inside. The colors in the cliffs were much more vibrant at this time of day.
We passed by Indian Head and after rounding Grand Portal we saw the portal lit in the golden light of the setting sun.
 | | Indian Head |
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 | | Grand Portal |
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Before long we arrived at the highlight of the cruise:
Spray Falls. Spray Falls plunges about 70 feet over the cliffs and directly into Lake Superior. As mentioned above, we could have added another 4 miles to our 11 mile hike earlier in the week to see the falls, but they are best viewed from the water. We weren't disappointed! After viewing the falls we turned around and then headed back for a second look at the sites we passed earlier. That suited us just fine because we had closer views on the way back.
 | | Bridal Veil Falls |
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 | | Sun setting into the lake. |
 | | Castle Rock |
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The cruise was the perfect way to cap off a wonderful week exploring Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore.
* All photos and videos are the property of the owners unless otherwise noted. *
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